• 1 Post
  • 43 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 9th, 2023

help-circle
  • I think piecemeal is a good way to go. Switch from MS Office to LibreOffice, from iOS to android, from Photoshop to Krita, then go to dual booting Linux (probably Mint or similar) with Windows, learn more using both, find what things you reboot to Windows for, find solutions for those using Wine and alternative software, get used to solving problems in Linux land and learn the tools. Once you are comfortable with a mix of both get rid of what you can, use Windows less and less, try CalyxOS or Graphene for your phone if possible, keep making steps. Each step makes progress, and imperfect solutions are a better starting point for finding better solutions.

    That said, for the earliest steps a virtual machine is an amazing tool, as is an old laptop. You can learn to solve problems on virtual or real hardware without making your life harder then inch closer to freedom. I’ve been using Linux since 2006 and honestly it has been a constant learning process. The first year was mostly VM learning, then an accidental install on my external HDD taught me about hubris and data protection. Since then I have kept moving towards more open hardware and software one step at a time. Getting started is the key, nothing teaches as well as trying.


  • What OS do you use? Windows, Mac, Linux? And same for your phone? Android? If so, you should be able to get it set up on your desktop and phone.

    First, get it installed on your desktop. For windows and mac go to the Syncthing download page and grab the installer. On Linux you will find install instructing below, but basically use your package manager to install syncthing.

    Once it is installed you can start it up and it will open a GUI, most likely through your web browser (probably 127.0.0.1:8384 or similar). From here you will have your Syncthing interface for your computer set up, so on to the phone.

    On your phone install syncthing from whichever store you use, fdroid is my favourite. Once installed open it and you should have an option to add another device. You can use this to scan the QR code on your computer Syncthing interface.


  • Good idea is to use something like Syncthing to copy data between your phone and another device like a laptop or another phone. This depends on the app, for Drip you have to manually export the data yourself on a regular basis.

    Another useful idea is if you have an old phone lying around get it connected via Syncthing and back up everything to it. If your current phone dies or is lost you can switch back immediately, a hot backup. If you have root on your device you can use NeoBackup to schedule backups of the data into a folder Syncthing can access and send to backup locations, say a home computer or spare device.


  • I haven’t seen that myself but I have a number of instances blocked, so from a filtering perspective I assume nothing and accept I don’t know.

    That said, regardless of platform the Nazis are out in force and will be for as long as it takes for it to be shameful again.

    Make Nazis the Bad Guys Again. Ffs, it isn’t a hard question, Nazi = bad, we already knew this, we should not have to relearn this.



  • It is possible, can you confirm the filesystem your steam install is on? The T7 mount looks like an automatic user mount, is it a standard ext4 or btrfs partition? Also, why is it mounting there, not in a fixed location denoted in your /etc/fstab file? If it is just automatic mounting there are some possible issues that could come from that, it may be worth testing another windows game through proton installed in the same steam library folder.

    That all said, you definitely need to have proton installed. If you go to your steam library you should be able to search for proton there. I would recommend installing the current version, the experimental, and if it is there proton-ge. I haven’t used Debian for a while so I don’t know what is in your repos but searching for proton-ge there may also have results.

    Once you definitely have the latest and experimental versions try switching version, testing with protontricks. It should show up both versions and allow you to switch between them without problems. You may also need to define your proton prefix as an environmental variable, something like PROTONPREFIX=/path/to/your/T7/proton/prefix/

    If you can’t get that going consider jumping on to a matrix channel for more second by second help, tonnes of people are happy to help you get wine/proton working correctly.


  • When you need a component such as the .NET framework you can install it in Wine/Proton using the Windows installers. The .exe you are being recommended should be able to run, but the other way around it is to use something like protontricks, a proton version of winetricks (technically it uses winetricks and is more of a set of integrations and a GUI, but yeah). Using protontricks you can install the .NET framework, the C++ runtimes, dxvk, and other tools. I would recommend learning a little about how to use protontricks and maybe look for a few specific tutorials for using it with specific games to get a feel for it.






  • I would second this. My partner was on an anticonvulsant for a bipolar diagnosis. Why? Because it is used, at a lower dose, as a mood stabiliser. She had limited effect at the sstandard dosage, so the psychiatrist went up in dose to get an effect.

    Ultimately she got off all of the meds and is doing better without them, but that is her and her experience, the meds may be useful for some people and not others.


  • Conditions that are on the label are the conditions the medication is intended to treat, in this case mild to moderate depression. Off label would be using a medication for something else, like using an SSRI to treat hot flushing in menopause or antipsychotics as a sleeping aid. Technically it may work, but the studies are not there to back it, evidence is poor, so it is not shown to he effective and may have associated harm.


  • What I have always wanted from a phone since Android came out is what I had with my HTC Dream (the first android phone, slide out keyboard, trackball, oh god, I loved it). I had a super chunky extended battery which made it last multiple days on a single charge, or for someone such as myself made it last the full day. My current phone has a 5003mAh battery and is 8.9mm thick. I would happily take something that was 20mm thick to have all that space taken by a battery, which based on the dimensions of the battery is about 0.17Wh/mm^3. The remaining space should provide enough space for about 23500mAh which would bring the total to just under 29000mAh. At my current usage of charging twice a day from about 20% up to 100%, so around 4000mAh x2, and assuming we want to work between 20% and 80% for extended battery longevity, that would make about 17000mAh or just over 4 days of usage. That would be a delightfully chonky phone with the easy ability to keep the charge within the healthy range, not to mention the ability to have it stand on its side or upright without a stand in many cases.



  • Ah, sorry, missed that. So the missed alarm notification is happening way later, like hours later, than the alarm time? That sounds like the background process is being killed in some way. In Android when you set an alarm it uses the intent system to wake itself again later. If this is failing for your alarm app only then it could be an issue with the app, but this looks like the default clock application, is that correct? It looks like you maybe installed it from the play store but it may just be an update, so just checking.

    That all said, if the clock is the only app with this problem then I would address it by replacing the app. If this is impacting other apps I can only think of a few ways that it could be caused but it should be fairly obviously problematic for other apps and solving that is beyond my understanding.

    I would recommend trying another alarm clock app from a source you trust. I would install something from IzzyOnDroid on FDroid but your milage may vary.




  • Yeah, I reckon it will be much more of an impact in cheaper devices, say light bulbs and semi smart watches, than in bigger systems like laptops or servers. Given the lack of licensing fees for the CPU it makes a system meaningfully cheaper, so there is a strong incentive for various groups to work on making RISCV successful. Hopefully someone out there will do the same with WiFi chips and maybe also camera sensors.


  • Come on over to the open source free software world. Things are exciting and shiny and new while also working better every day. My most recent install of EndeavourOS took about 20 minutes with all drivers and boot stuff working correctly first try, as opposed to the multiple hour installs of 15 years ago. CalyxOS is awesome and has some really cool isolation between apps, not to mention ad blocking. And free hardware is becoming a real option with the newer RISCV stuff coming to market, allowing many more SOC designs to flourish.

    I have been in to tech for about 25 years and it has never been cooler than right now with Valve bringing immutable Arch as a base for their OS and making proton work so well that I don’t even check before trying things.

    Also, man, some of the stuff coming out of the 3D printing works is just amazing. There is a guy who I follow who is working on solid state propulsion, another is working on 3D printed rocket engines, and another working on prosthetics. Cool things are still happening, just not on Windows or Mac.